Thursday, 27 March 2008

Out to the theatre

Mummy Grit and Daddy Dig are big grown ups today. We must carry out a special and important grown up duty.

We have to watch Shark, Squirrel and Tiger perform at their end-of-term 'sharing event'. This is held at the Shed drama group.

I might need to explain a couple of things.

Although Shark, Squirrel and Tiger are home educated, which means they can run about the house all day and squeal in the name of learning, they do take a lot of lessons which happen in term time, like French, Gym, Trampoline and Drama. Hence we all get dragged into what schools are doing, even though we don't care what schools do. (Actually I do care, because when the schools are on holiday the Grit and Dig family stays at home and sulks, because now we have to Queue Everywhere.) Anyway, it is end-of-term, apparently, and we are all in joy or grief about that.

Second, there's the Shed. This is an outreach of Chickenshed drama. And absolutely totally right on it is too. Unusually, for a Grit, I don't have a word against it. All kids, all ages, all dis/abilities work co-operatively on drama, because all children can act. Even, I'm glad to say, Squirrel, Shark and Tiger, who act up fine afterwards, because the first thing they do each week after the co-operative workshop ends, is to fight each other in the carpark.

Well tonight it is the Shed end-of-term sharing event, and all good mummies and daddies must go along.

This term, the children have worked with the story of Pocahontas. They have made drama up around that. It includes singing and sign language and dancing and being fire. It also involves a bunch of leaves and grasses, and buying beads. It does not include, so Squirrel impatiently tells me, shopping at Tesco, driving a car, or horse racing. I suspect these were all Squirrel's suggestions about the drama development which strangely were not developed by the leaders.

Anyway, the drama begins with the Native American Indians. They look like they are having a nice time shopping at the market for beads and dancing. Then the white settlers come along and look like they are pretending to be crocodiles. Someone gets shot and everyone stops shopping and starts fighting.

Mummy Grit reasons at this point, during the melee, that there must be a struggle for land rights. There are about 20 kids in the drama troupe tonight, so this bit looks realistic because we can't all quite fit in the room, what with the mummies and daddies taking up half the space, so tempers do fray at this point and there are a few howls and a bit of real pushing.

Then along comes Pocahontas to restore order and discipline. Unfortunately this is Tiger. She, along with Shark and Squirrel, are all Pocahontas, because this is about sharing, and because, I suspect, they all have very long hair. The boys did not get to share this role.

To be Pocahontas, Tiger has to stand up amongst the fighting crowd and look brave and commanding. When she does this, Daddy Dig starts to whimper with a funny noise in his throat which Mummy Grit takes to be suppressed tears of paternal pride. Tiger adopts her trembling lip martyrdom posture like she has been told You must now give the last piece of chocolate cake to Aunty Dee. This is crossed with fear and confusion that it really is her bit and people are looking.

Fortunately, the settlers and Indians stop fighting and get into groups so they can exchange children and do more dancing. Then it's Shark's turn to be Pocahontas. Before she went in, Shark told us, Don't look at me. She certainly doesn't look at us smiling and waving, but turns away and half-smiles, before thinking better of it and looking stern that she might have been distracted. Now she does what a proper Pocahontas has to do when they are putting a hat on someone's head and looking like they are doing a spot of floor cleaning.

And by now, two Pocanontases down, Mummy Grit was nearly weeping silent tears of pride and joy. It was probably all I could do to stop myself leaping up, shouting Can you see my wonderful daughter! while realising that every other mummy and daddy is probably feeling just the same thing too.

After some more drama where it looks like everyone lies down to sleep, or is possibly dying in agony, Squirrel has to be a Pocahontas with a line to say. Squirrel delivers this line very loudly and at the right time when her daddy chief was about to be executed by the settlers and her line was STOP. She looks cross too, and I'm sure Daddy Dig is very proud, and hoped that she might do the same brave, self-sacrificing deed for him if settlers invade our house and try to take over his computer.

And then it was over. The settlers were all shot and quite a few of the brave native American Indians too and everyone is a clump of bulrushes and sings a song and Mummy Grit wanted to cry a little bit too because she was so proud and has a big heart bursting with joy and it was all so awful.

When it was done and Shark, Squirrel and Tiger ran to us shouting Mummy! Daddy! Did you see me? I was Pocahontas! then it was nearly tear time again. I probably had to pretend I had dust in my eyes kicked up by the Indians. But it was OK, my dearest Pocahontases times three, watching your flowing hair curling and flying about your happy, proud, excited faces, because after leaving the room you all had a big shove and push again and went back to fighting as normal and had to be told off as usual.

Other stuff

We have educated triplet girls to age 16 by never sending them to school.

At age 16, one daughter is now at 6th form for A levels, so you can find out about culture clash.

The other two daughters are taking a year to think what they want to do next, because we run at our own pace.If you are looking for primary, try the archives under 2011 or 2012. Ideas? Try Seven days with elephants.

Secondary home ed? Try 2012 or 2014 through to 2016.

Exams made life boring for us all and the blog stopped for long periods so the home educated could concentrate on enjoying some teens.

From 2016, expect the blog to start concentrating on me, me, me, because it's my turn.

Home ed style: Secular, philosophical, eclectic, autonomous.

Exams: own choice IGCSE courses. The HE-exams group is a must-join. I gave formal lessons in nothing.

where is everybody?

This blog is a record of a home educationwrit for parents thinking about home edwrit for the LA who need an education about home edwrit for Grit's friends and relations who drop in once a yearand writ for Grit's sane and lovely mind.

The internal DCSF Consultation Report, made public 23 January. (pdf)In Annex A, 94% of respondents disagreed that the local authority should have the power to interview a home educated child alone.When this comes out Ed Balls' mouth in the Second Reading Debate, 94% against turns to:'The vast majority of parents would be happy to let that happen'(Hansard 11.01.10, Children, Schools and Families Bill, col 437.)

Love it or loathe it? The petition still broke a record.Press release in the Mirror, Channel4 news, the Guardian.

'Even if you don't currently see yourself home educating, you never know what the future might hold, and if a time comes when you find yourself needing to pull your child out of school, I hope the option is still available to you, and you don't regret thinking *it's nothing to do with me*.'

Read the Right to Reply'Home educators are renowned for their strong opinions and independent spirit. They come from all faiths and none. They have as many approaches to education as there are children. They rarely agree on anything. And yet they are remarkably united in their opposition to these proposals. There is great concern that their way of life will be legislated out of existence.'--Response to the Badman Review of Elective Home Education in England and reaction to the Select Committee hearing.

The problem with home educators is that they are impossible to define. The only things that links them is respect for their children. And did the state just stagger foolishly across that line?Are we sandal wearing tree huggers who let our kids run wild or control mad Jesus freaks who don't want them learning about sex and evolution? Are we hot housing or leaving them to watch TV and play computer games all day? -Firebird.The UK government suggested that we home educate our children to cover up our abuse.On that issue, would you like some statistics?

'The Department [for Children, Schools and Families] is aware that attempts are being made on the Internet to vilify and harass the author of the review. It is the Department's view that, whilst dealing with each request on its merits, this situation will have to be taken into account in dealing with any relevant FOI requests. ... we anticipate the need to consider whether it is in the public interest to release information likely to intensify any such campaign, or to lead to harassment or distress to individuals.'Hello DCSF. Vilify: to make vicious and defamatory statements about.Like putting it about that home educated children are abused by their parents? Isolated? Unsocialised? Denied an education?And the latest one, that their mothers have Munchhausen's Syndrome by Proxy, and benefit from their child's suffering.

... compulsory registration, entry to the home, inspection according to external standards, and power to see the child without the parent present.By implication this applies to anyone who has their child at home with them: particularly parents with under 5s, but also those with school-aged children who are at home in the evenings, over the weekends, and throughout the summer holidays. Think on: the possibility of parental inspection, with or without your presence, based on the very human whim of a local authority officer.Is that okay with you?Renegade Parent on the implications for all parents from the Badman review of home education.

'Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children'.(Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948, Article 26.3)

Photos and text copyright Grit.This is Grit's blog. The pictures come from her broken phone camera, and they are hers by right.

The words too are Grit's, Grit's, all Grit's. This is not to say you cannot use any words that Grit uses - after all, she is the unhinged woman who once banned SOIL - but you just cannot lift them in the long, complex and lovely arrangements, like the ones Grit has writ.

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